Referral is not a necessity for a patient who wants to get psychiatrist consultation in Latvia. The good thing about it is the availability and the possibility to consult with highest educated mental health specialist for any person in society without barriers. On the other hand, there is an overwhelming work load for psychiatrists.

To explore the prevalence of self-referred patients in out-patient care and the adherence to psychiatrist recommendations.

The medical documentation of all consecutive first-time out-patient center “Pardaugava” psychiatrist patients over the period of 01.01.2020. to 30.04.2020. with one year follow-up was analyzed.

236 patients were included in the study, 31.2% of them were men. The average age was 49 (SD ± 22.65) years. Patients with Affective (F3X) and Neurotic (F4X) disorders were self-referred more often compared to Organic mental (F0X) disorder or other spectrum patients (83.3% and 77.5% vs 33.3% or 56.0%, p<0.001). Median appointment count was 4, higher in F4X (6) and lower in F3X patients (2). Majority of F4X patients (61,6%) did not follow the recommendations or stopped seeing psychiatrist, while only 13,7% were persistent. Сonversely, 48,4% of F3X patients followed the recommendations and only 43,5% stopped. In comparison, other spectrum patients followed recommendations in 32.0% of cases and ignored - in 56.6%.

Patients were actively self-referring themselves to psychiatrist. Highest adherence to psychiatrist recommendations was found in patients with affective disorders compared to other spectrum patients. In contrast, adherence was the lowest in patients with neurotic disorders.

No significant relationships.

ADHD is known to increase the risk of substance use, and is associated with lower degrees of education, criminal behavior and neuropsychic difficulties. Previous research is limited by small samples, variable findings, and short follow-up time. Earlier research tends to be limited to substance use above the threshold for abuse or dependency.

This study aims at looking at the effects of cannabis use both over and under threshold for abuse or dependency in relations to clinical characteristics over a 3-year follow-up period.

At follow up a total of 203 patients were diagnosed with ADHD either as primary of as secondary diagnosis, of those 57 (28,1%) had lifetime use of cannabis (LUC), mean age at inclusion was 15 and half years old and 40% were of female sex. SPSS (v.29) were used to perform independent sample t-tests to test for effects and Hierarchical block-wise regressions were done to check for confounding variables.

Lifetime cannabis use was associated with lower global functioning (p=0.000), increased risk of suicidal ideation (p=0.007), more suicide attempts (p=0.049), more self-reported symptoms (p=0.001), more school drop-out (p=0.000) and with psychotic features (p=0.024). Even after testing for know confounders such as female sex and age LUC explained significant variance.

LUC is associated with increased functional and clinical characteristics. The findings are discussed in relationship with clinical practice and limitations of the study.

No significant relationships.

Effective transition from child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) to adult services is one of the main challenges currently facing child psychiatry today

The Young Adult 1Programme (YAP) based at St. Patrick’s University Hospital Dublin, is a group based day programme especially designed to meet the needs of younger people aged 18–25 and support them through this difficult period.

To examine the effectiveness of participation in YAP for young adults with mental illness. To determine whether participation in particular aspects of the programme prove more beneficial and what factors might be associated with outcome.

All patients enrolled in YAP between 1 September 2011 and 31 August 2012 were included in the study. Each patient was assessed using the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HONOS) and Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) rating scale before beginning the programme and after discharge in order to evaluate improvement. The frequency of attendance at individual group sessions was recorded. Patient and illness variables were also recorded, for example demographics, diagnosis.

A total of 101 service users were in enrolled in YAP during this 12-month period. Eight service users could not be used for analysis, as they did not have a complete data set, mostly due to failure to attend for discharge HONOS/GAF ratings

Using a paired sample t-test, there is a significant reduction in HONOS: Mean df=1.3, s.d.=1.09 (95% CI=1.08–1.53), p<0.001

Using a paired sample t-test, there is a significant increase in GAF: Mean df=9.25, s.d.=7.69 (95% CI=7.66–10.83), p<0.001

Improvements in HONOS and GAF scores are significantly correlated with better attendance at the programme (p<0.04, <0.00 respectively).

More attendance at YAP sessions correlates with better improvement in both HONOS and GAF rating scores.